Title

Author

Date of Award

8-1990

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Gil Mazer

Second Advisor

Dr. Robert Brashear

Third Advisor

Dr. Robert Betz

Abstract

This research was undertaken to explore the effects of anabolic steroid use on the measured personality traits of male weight trainers. The use of these drugs by competitive and non-competitive athletes worldwide has grown to enormous proportions. Anecdotal case reports that discuss various psychological manifestations associated with the use of anabolic steroids by athletes have been presented in professional journals and in the popular press in recent years. However, there have been few studies that systematically examine the psychological consequences of steroid utilization.

The underlying assumption of this study was that anabolic steroids would affect the measured personality characteristics of male weight trainers who use these drugs and that the specific personality traits affected could be identified.

Thirty research subjects were recruited from various gyms and fitness centers in the upper midwestern United States. Fifteen male weight trainers who used anabolic steroids as part of their training regimen comprised the experimental group and 15 male weight trainers who have never used the drugs comprised the comparison group. The subjects completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II ((MCMI-II), Millon, 1987) on two different occasions; once while the experimental group subjects were administering anabolic steroids and again after they had cessated. The comparison group subjects completed the MCMI-II concurrently with the experimental group. The Mann-Whitney U test for ordinal data was used to test statistical significance of the null hypotheses.

The results supported the research hypotheses that there is a statistically significant difference: (a) in the measured personality traits of male weight trainers when using and not using anabolic steroids, (b) between the measured personality traits of male weight trainers using anabolic steroids and the traits of a comparable group of male weight trainers who have never used the drugs, and (c) between the measured personality traits of male weight trainers when not using anabolic steroids and the traits of a comparable group of male weight trainers who have never used the drugs.

Conclusions and explanations of the results were offered and recommendations for further research were proposed.